Slip And Fall / Premises Liability
An owner of property has a responsibility to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition. If you fall while on someone else’s property, you may have the right to bring a claim. However, slip and fall cases are among the most risky and difficult cases to win.
The reasons for the difficulty are many.
- First, an owner of property is not responsible to warn you of an open and obvious danger. If the danger is apparent, but you did not see it, the owner of the property is not responsible.
- Second, you must prove that the property owner either knew of the hazard on their property or that it existed for a long enough time that they should have known about it. This is difficult as normally you would have no way of knowing about how long the hazard had been present. For example, if you fall in a puddle of water in a restaurant, the property owner would not be responsible unless you could prove it had been there long enough for them to do something about it. If another customer had just spilled the water moments earlier, then the property owner is not responsible.
This is not to say that all slip and fall claims are without merit. Some claims that may be worthwhile to investigate include falls on food in a grocery store, falls on ice or snow that has not been cleared long after the storm has ended, or falls on rented property that has not been properly maintained.
If you have been injured in a slip and fall incident, contact Terry, Slane & Ruohonen, at 612-362-0000 for legal advice. Our partners have been named Super Lawyers many times by their peers and have a reputation for getting the job done.
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